Loyd and Tuck: A tale of two seasons

Irish freshman of year from Niles West had decidedly better time than UConn counterpart out of Bolingbrook

April 06, 2013|By Philip Hersh, Chicago Tribune reporter

Jewell Loyd, right, and Morgan Tuck battle during a high school game last year. The two will face off Sunday when Notre Dame plays UConn in a national semifinal in New Orleans. (Scott Strazzante/Tribune photo)

NEW ORLEANS — Before Jewell Loyd finished her senior year at Niles West, she told her high school coach what she hoped to achieve as a Notre Dame freshman.

"She set a goal to be Big East freshman of the year," Niles West coach Tony Konsewicz said. "When Jewell sets a goal, it's usually good as gold."

Make that 24-karat. Loyd not only was her conference's freshman of the year but also the national freshman of the year.

"I have always had high expectations, and I want to make sure I meet them," Loyd said Saturday. "I don't set goals I can't really accomplish."

Some might have figured Morgan Tuck had a better chance at such freshman recognition than Loyd. After all, Tuck had been Ms. Basketball of Illinois as a senior and a freshman at Bolingbrook, and her preseason work at Connecticut had impressed coach Geno Auriemma tremendously.

Then both her right knee and psyche were bruised.

"Morgan's issue after preseason was 50 percent her knee, the other 50 percent was I don't think she believed she was that good," Auriemma said.

"I told her, 'The first month of practice, you were the best post player we had. Why did you change everything you were doing?' She goes, 'I don't know.'''

So Tuck comes into Sunday's NCAA semifinal in a decidedly different position than Loyd as their teams meet for the fourth time this season, with the winner playing Louisville or Cal-Berkeley in Tuesday's final.

Loyd has started all but two of 36 games and averaged 31 minutes of playing time and 12.5 points for No. 2 Notre Dame (35-1). Tuck, a 6-2 forward, has started just twice for No. 3 UConn (33-4), averaged 6.5 points and 15.5 minutes, playing more than 30 just once — coincidentally, a triple-overtime loss at South Bend.

Loyd, a 5-foot-10 guard who can play three positions, had the advantage of coming into a team that needed to replace three starters. UConn had lost only guard Tiffany Hayes.

"I thought she would play more," said Tuck's high school coach, Anthony Smith. "But she always knew there would be ups and downs, and her play would control how much time she got."

Tuck has become what UConn All-America center Stefanie Dolson called, "one of those under-the-radar players." Meanwhile, another Huskies freshman, 6-4 forward Breanna Stewart, reversed a month-long struggle to become the MVP of her NCAA tournament region.

"It has been a hard thing for (Tuck) to come back," Dolson said. "But she has done a great job of pushing through it and helping us where we need her."

Tuck said Saturday she is not sure how she hurt her knee in mid-December, a bruise that sidelined her two games and has put her in a protective brace. She banged it again slipping on ice in February and missed another game.

She agrees with her coach that the reason for the drop in her performance wasn't physical. It led to a season for which Tuck said she deserved a grade of C.

"I don't know exactly what changed," she said, "but the physical part was fine. Mentally, I was over-thinking things. I'm just disappointed I didn't play my game.

"You have to earn it. This year has shown me that. (But) it took me a long time to make the transition."

Loyd made it instantly, scoring 19 in both her third and fourth games and then showing a national TV audience how good she was with a 24-point, seven-rebound effort against Baylor in her sixth game. She has gone from defensive question to the Irish's answer against most opponents' top player.

"The first day of practice, it was pretty obvious she was that good and that ready," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "She went through a little bit of what most freshmen do, where there are ups and downs as you're getting used to the rigors of the college season.

"But she has really come through late in the year, which surprises me because a lot of freshmen hit the wall in February and don't really recover."

That hasn't surprised Irish All-America point guard Skylar Diggins, struck by Loyd's talent when the two played in a pickup game three years ago.

Loyd, then a high school sophomore, was making an unofficial visit to South Bend. Diggins threw a high pass toward the basket, just to see if Loyd would go for it. She turned it into one of the alley-oop baskets that have become a trademark of her freshman season.

"I told coach, 'This girl, we've gotta have her,''' Diggins said.

One day, Loyd said, she is going to throw down one of those passes, no matter that a woman shorter than 6-0 never had done it.